Within seconds of pulling away from the curb of Lola’s apartment complex, Beau placed his hand just inside the slit of her dress and squeezed gently. She didn’t expect his touch to overwhelm her like it did, as if it were the eye of a hurricane, the spot the rest of her body revolved around. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him off.
“What’s wrong?” His cheek dimpled at one corner of his mouth.
“It’s too much,” she said.
“But it’s nothing.”
“It should be.”
He replaced his hand but this time slid it under the dress. “You say you’re doing this for the money. Maybe that’s what he needs to hear. Your body tells a different story, though.” His fingers edged along the inside of her thigh. “I know the other night’s played a loop in your thoughts, just like it has in mine.”
She shored up her resolve. Beau no doubt expected her to give in completely, but it was early. It was his nature to push, and it was hers to push back. She was having a hard time remembering why she should, though, with his hand burning against her skin. “Where are you taking me tonight?” she asked to change the subject.
“Care to take a guess?”
“In this gown, somewhere fancier than I’ve ever been. Right?”
“I don’t know where you’ve been.” He was teasing her, mischief in his twinkling eyes.
She pressed her lips together to suppress a smile. “There’s a movie premiere in Hollywood.”
“Not that unusual.”
She shifted in her seat. “And the L.A. Opera season opened this week. La Traviata is playing.”
“You’ve given this some thought.”
“I looked online.” Lola didn’t want to sound overeager, but she’d been wondering all afternoon what was in store. “Of course, it’s L.A.—there’re tons of things happening. But those both sounded exciting.”
He smiled. “Our first stop is to see my sister in the Hollywood Hills. It won’t take five minutes.”
Lola’s brows furrowed. While researching Beau, she hadn’t read anything about siblings. “You never mentioned a sister. Is she younger or older?”
“Younger by a couple years. You can wait in the car if you’d like.”
She feigned interest in her fingernails. “Yes, that’s probably best.”
After a brief silence, he said, “Or, you can meet her. I’d like that.”
She glanced up. “Wouldn’t that be weird?”
“Not for me. Brigitte and I often attend the same events, so she’s met some of my dates.”
“Were they also paid to stand by your side, though?”
Beau looked as though he’d bitten into a lemon. “Of course not. You don’t have to give her all the details.”
“Right,” she said. “I guess that would be fine.”
“Good.” He rubbed her leg. “I like that you wore the dress,” he said softly. “I like that you shaved your legs again. Even if it wasn’t for me.”
His hand moved over her skin as though they’d never parted. Their connection hadn’t weakened with time apart. She was just as hungry for his hand to move higher—to give her what only he could. She was supposed to be pushing back, but his pull was strong.
“It was,” she said.
She was there, somewhere she both did and did not want to be. She could fight—he would win. She could give everything over—he would demand more. There was a war in and outside of her. Her against herself. Her against him. His weapons were growing, even as she inched over to his side.
He moved a little closer. His stiff hair smelled of men’s product. She reached up and took a piece that had separated and fallen over his forehead. She slid her fingers along it to put it in place, but it just swung back. He had touched her—her chin, her leg, his lips to hers, his hand around hers, but she had not yet touched him except for that strand of hair. She wanted more. Wasn’t it okay to take it? Isn’t that what all three parties involved had agreed to?
This was her life for the next however many hours, and in that moment, she didn’t feel like pretending she hated it. “Beau.”
“Lola.”
“Roll up the partition.”
He swallowed audibly. “We’re almost there.”
She leaned over and hit the button herself. “This won’t take long,” she whispered. She thought her advance would’ve surprised him, but no sooner had she lifted a knee than he was pulling her onto his lap. He released her to unbutton his slacks, but she stopped him.
“Let me,” she said.
She moved his hands to her breasts. He felt her impatiently, his fingers so hard she winced. She took him out. He went to put his mouth on her nipple, but she caught his face and lifted it to hers. “There’s no time for that,” she said. Her mouth pulled to his like a magnet to steel. They kissed with the same fury of urgency. She pushed aside her underwear and helped him inside her, taking a few agonizingly long moments to adjust to his girth when all she wanted was to screw him fast.
They began to move. She took his earlobe in her mouth as they found their rhythm. His fingers dug into her scalp, skin—anywhere he could get.
He took over, securing her hips to him and thrusting up into her. Her head fell back. The car ceiling blurred with bright spots. He guided her with one hand and circled her clit with the other. The ache from the last few days balled low in her stomach, growing and growing until she gasped in a silent scream with the crest of her orgasm. Beau pulled her off of him. He took himself in one hand, held her hip with the other and came all over the insides of her thighs.
“Beau,” she panted. “God, Beau. How? How are we so…?”
His breaths were also labored. “Fast?”
She was going to say “good together,” but even in her state, she knew she shouldn’t. He looked at her as if he knew anyway.
They were no longer driving. Beau searched the space around them and scratched the back of his head. He frowned. “I didn’t plan for sex in the car.”
“I apologize for the disruption to tonight’s program,” she said, her mouth tingling with the urge to smile.
“It’s all right,” he said distractedly. “I just—aha.” He picked her up and moved her from his lap to the seat. He reached for a beverage napkin from the limo’s built-in bar, pulled her leg open and wiped the inside of one thigh.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Cleaning you.”
It was unnecessary, but she didn’t stop him. Being felt that way only added to the warm satisfaction her orgasm had left her with. “Why’d you pull out?” she asked.
His eyes traveled up. They glinted to match his smirk. “My sister can be intense. Your concentration should be on her at all times. I didn’t want to leave anything behind that might—distract you.”
“Oh. Always one step ahead,” she murmured.
He dropped the napkin but didn’t stop touching her.
Lola’s head fell back against the window. “Your hands feel good.”
“You mean when they aren’t trying to get in your underwear?”
“That too.” She smiled. “But this is also nice.”
He pressed his thumbs to the insides of her thighs and massaged. “You keep tensing. Are you nervous?”
“No,” she said, her eyes closed. “You have strong hands. And I’m not used to this.”
“To what?”
“A massage. I haven’t had many in my life.”
He stopped. “You haven’t?”
She lifted her head to look at him. “Our definitions of luxury are probably a little different. For instance, a car wash is something I only allow when we’re flush.”
“Oh, no.” He crawled over her body and kissed her. “Tonight.” He pecked her again. “You’re getting the massage of your life.”
“From you?” she asked.
“As if I want anyone else touching you.”
The window rattled suddenly, and they jumped away from each other like teenagers caught making out.
“Beau?” came a woman’s voice. She peered through the glass.
“Don’t worry,” he said as he tucked himself back into his pants. “They’re tinted.”
Lola fixed her underwear and dress. Instinctively, she leaned over and straightened Beau’s tie. It was red, like the one he’d been wearing the night they’d met.
Before she could move away, he put his hand around her wrist and pulled her back. “Thanks,” he said, kissing her once. “If I haven’t said it yet, thank you for saying yes. I love—having you by my side.”
He unlocked the door and got out while Lola stayed frozen where she was. He’d stumbled over the word love as if he were going to say something else. Something like “I love you.” Her—Lola, which was ridiculous. True, from the moment they’d met, their relationship had been intense. Their first night had been a series of dates in the span of a few hours. They had a connection—an attraction—but it didn’t matter. It couldn’t evolve beyond the physical.
“You’ve been sitting at the curb for ten minutes,” she heard from outside in a woman’s noticeable French accent. “What the hell were you doing?”
Beau cleared his throat. “Business call.”
“Business?” She eyed Lola as she exited the car behind him. “Of course. Yes.”
Lola found herself face to face with a woman who looked nothing like Beau. Her raven-colored hair was wrapped into a chignon. She just came up to Lola’s chin, and she seemed to know it, turning her thin, pointed nose up in the air for added height.
Lola extended her hand and introduced herself.
His sister waved at the air around them. “I’m sure I’m coming down with something,” she said. “I’d hate to get you sick.”
Beau took Lola’s hand instead and brought it to his side. “Lola, this is Brigitte. Who apparently has plans tonight.”
Brigitte sighed and smoothed her hands over her tight, red sleeveless dress. “I don’t, but my mother loved to say ‘always dress for company.’”
“We’re hardly company,” Beau said.
“Good evening, Miss Leroux,” Warner said from over the top of the limo.
“Ah,” Brigitte said, “but Warner is here. Is he not worthy of such a beautiful dress?”
She trotted in her heels around the car to throw herself in Warner’s open arms.
“Ignore her,” Beau said to Lola, rolling his eyes. “She’s that way with anyone who gives her attention. Warner took her to an event last week, yet she acts like he’s just returned home from war.” Brigitte stroked Warner’s suited arm, threw her head back and laughed. Warner looked stunned by her—and Lola had to admit, she was stunning. He smiled so hard his cheeks turned red.
“We don’t have much time,” Beau interrupted their moment. “No time at all, actually.”
“You’re always rushing me,” Brigitte said, turning her back on Warner without so much as a glance. She led the way up the sidewalk. “Is this the girl?”
“Brigitte,” Beau warned.
“What girl?” Lola asked. She followed Beau into the house through a front door twice as tall as them.
“Don’t be shy, brother.” Brigitte looked over her shoulder at Lola. The ordinary brown of her eyes should’ve been comforting, yet they were far too sharp for that. “It’s just that Beau rarely mentions anyone, except that he’s been talking about this one girl…”
Beau inhaled a deep breath and closed his eyes a moment. “Brigitte, sois sage. Is Louis in the study?” He looked at Lola. “Our lawyer.”
Lola’s attention was drawn up to the entryway’s chandelier. “Wow.”
“Ah, yes. It’s called a Montgolfier—after the brothers,” Brigitte said. “Do you know them? They’re French.”
Lola shook her head.
“They only invented the hot air balloon. That’s why it’s shaped like one but upside down.”
“It’s lovely,” Lola said, “just like your home.” Her heels, shorter than Brigitte’s, clicked on the foyer’s marble floor.
“Technically it’s Beau’s,” Brigitte said. “He lets me stay here.”
“It’s our home,” Beau said to her. “I think after nearly a decade here, it’s okay to say.”
“I just hate for you to think I’m taking advantage.” She looked at Lola. “Beau must be careful about that sort of thing.”
Lola didn’t want to go down that road. She slid her hand from Beau’s. “I don’t understand. You live here?”
“Yes,” Brigitte answered.
Just moments ago, Lola had been thinking how well they knew each other for such a short time. She must not have known much if she didn’t even know where he lived. It hit her that maybe he wanted it that way. Why else would he bring her to a hotel when he had a home nearby?
Lola turned away to avoid Beau’s inquisitive look. The pearl-colored living room had matching drapes that framed long, French doors. Gold molding trimmed the room, complementing the gold accents in the lamps, vases and side tables. The walls were lined with simple, elegant artwork that continued into the hallways and up the spiral staircase. A large vase of white and purple Calla lilies sat center on the entryway table.
She’d done a complete turn and now found Brigitte with her arms surrounding Beau’s neck. Her eyes were large with admiration for him, and there was lip-gloss grease on his cheek. “Did you miss your baby sister?” she asked.
“Come on, Brigitte,” he said. “I saw you two days ago. Let me go check with Louis.”
She dropped her arms with a huff. “Yes, he’s in the study. I’ll keep Lily company.”
“Lola,” he corrected.
“Right.”
Beau leaned over and kissed Lola’s cheek. “Will you be all right?”
She nodded. “Go ahead.”
“A few minutes, ma chatte.”
Brigitte scoffed just loud enough to be heard.
He ignored her, winking at Lola before disappearing behind double doors.
Brigitte turned to her. “So, have you known my brother long?”
“A couple weeks.”
“Oh. That is long.”
Lola smiled thinly. “Not for most people.”
“Beau isn’t most people. But I’m sure you’ve figured that out.”
“I have,” Lola said. “He’s certainly unlike anyone I’ve ever met.”
“Don’t worry if you’re flustered by him. That’s normal. My brother isn’t easy to read unless you know him like I do.” She arched one thin, black eyebrow and looked from Lola’s feet to her face. “You, on the other hand, I’m not so sure.”
“Sorry?”
“My brother’s money gets many admirers. He has a good nose for bullshit, except when it comes to particularly studied actresses. That’s where he needs my help.”
Lola crossed her arms. “That isn’t me.”
“No?”
“No. And my relationship with Beau isn’t anyone’s business but ours. He knows exactly what I want from him.”
Brigitte circled Lola, watching her the entire time. “You aren’t Beau’s usual type.”
“If you’re trying to intimidate me, it won’t work.”
Brigitte came to a stop in front of her. “My, my. You truly aren’t his type.” Her knuckles brushed along Lola’s arm. “I can see why he’s attracted to you.”
Lola glanced at Brigitte’s hand and smiled faintly. “Are you coming on to me, Brigitte?”
“If it’s money you’re after, I’m no pauper myself.”
“As if you have the slightest clue what I’m after.”
Brigitte cooed and fluttered like a little bird. “I see you’re not worried about making a good impression on me.”
“I have no delusions about my relationship with Beau. It’s temporary, and he knows that. Therefore I have no reason to impress you.”
“Temporary,” Brigitte repeated. “You flinched at the word.”
Lola had hoped Brigitte wouldn’t catch that. She narrowed her eyes. “And you have a vivid imagination.”
“Do you love him?” she asked.
The question flustered Lola, but this time she was ready for it. Her face remained smooth. “If I do or don’t, it isn’t your business. You aren’t your brother’s keeper—or are you?”
Brigitte’s eye twitched noticeably. “What was that he called you? Ma chatte?” She said the endearment so sharply, venom might’ve sprayed off her tongue. “Do you even know what it means?”
“His cat,” Lola answered.
“Close. More like his pussy,” Brigitte said.
Lola leaned in. “Well, it is.”
“I can smell him on you.”
“That’s because we fucked on the way over.”
Brigitte’s lips paled with a tight smile. “Beau,” she called loudly over Lola’s shoulder. “We’re finished here.”
The door opened. “So are we,” Beau said from behind Lola. “We’ll be on our way then.”
“See you tomorrow night,” Brigitte said to him. “And goodbye, Lola.” She didn’t walk them out.
“Was she hard on you?” Beau asked on the way to the limo.
“I can handle her.”
“I wouldn’t have left you alone if I didn’t believe that.”
Warner already had the door open for them.
“She seems oddly protective,” Lola noted.
“She’s not actually my sister,” Beau said.
Warner sniffed. He shut the door once they were inside.
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Lola said. “You neither look nor sound anything alike.”
Beau tugged on the end of his sleeve. “Would you like a drink?”
“No.”
Lola waited as he fiddled with his cufflink. His brows got heavy, as if it required great concentration. Finally he said, “I don’t talk about my family often. I prefer to keep my personal affairs—well, private.”
It’d taken Lola a few months to introduce Johnny to her mother. She loved them both, but they represented two different things for her—her past and her future. Johnny and Dina now got along better than Lola and Dina. “I understand,” Lola said. “We can talk about something else.”
“No, I…” He looked up and cleared his throat. “I want to tell you. It’s part of who I am, and I want you to know me.”
It was a step in a different direction for them—forward or backward, Lola wasn’t sure, but she’d always been curious about this side of Beau, especially right after his proposition.
“I told you when I was seventeen I went to Paris with my dad for the summer. The trip was cut short because of his car accident. That’s how he died.”
Lola covered her mouth. “While you were there?”
“Yes. And he wasn’t alone. He was with a woman he’d introduced me to as a friend earlier that summer—but as it turned out, they’d been having an affair for years. She was also killed.”
“You didn’t know about her?”
Beau shook his head slowly. “I had no idea. When I met her, she offered for her daughter, Brigitte, to show me around Paris since I didn’t know anyone my own age. Brigitte and I became friends.” He brushed his hand over his pants. The leather seat creaked as he shifted. “I found out later she knew the truth about our parents but didn’t tell me. If I’d known, I would’ve stood up to him. For my mom.”
There was irony in this information, considering how Beau was coming between Lola and Johnny. But maybe the two events were somehow related. Lola didn’t mention it. Beau was clearly outside his comfort zone, and she didn’t want him to clam up. “How’d Brigitte end up here?”
“She was born here, so she had dual citizenship even though she grew up there. She begged me to bring her back to America with me.”
“But you’d only just met. Why would she want that?”
“She just felt…alone. Nowhere to turn.” He pulled a little at his collar. “Imagine explaining to my mom about the fifteen-year-old girl I got off the plane with.”
“She took in her husband’s lover’s kid?”
“Yes, and she didn’t deal well with it. His death and finding out about the affair sent her into a deep depression that lasted almost two years. I had just finished high school, but I couldn’t leave her like that so I lived with them. Then one day she was fine again.”
“Just like that? What changed?”
“She was better for about six months. She lost weight, bought new clothes, cooked us lavish meals. She even took a trip. I moved out and Brigitte was getting ready to graduate. Everything was great.”
“Until?”
“Until…we realized why she’d been so happy. As Brigitte’s guardian, my mom was in charge of her inheritance—and in those six months, she’d spent all of it.”
Lola’s mouth fell open. “You’re kidding.”
“She tried to tell me we deserved that money more than Brigitte. And she’s convinced Brigitte uses me for my money as revenge against her.”
“Does she?”
“No. My mother has an active imagination.”
“What makes you so sure?”
Beau frowned. “Brigitte and I lived together for a long time before I made even a dime. Brigitte was there through all of it, for every late night. When I couldn’t see straight anymore, she pushed me forward. She believed in me, even when I was no one.”
Lola had a sinking feeling. It didn’t matter what his life was before—for Beau, money defined people. He actually believed he was nobody before it. “Where’s your mom now?”
“With her sister in Florida. We aren’t very close, but I support her how I can.”
“With money,” Lola said.
Beau pulsed his eyebrows once. “Not that she deserves it, but she’s my mother after all.”
“That’s why you said money complicates things.”
“One of the reasons.”
“I’m sorry,” Lola said.
“Everyone has things in their past to be sorry for. We can’t let it shape who we are. Right?”
She glanced at her hands on the leather seat. She supposed everyone had things to be sorry for, but she’d made peace with her past. If that were true, there wasn’t any reason why she shouldn’t be honest with Beau about the fact that she used to strip. But was there any point in telling him now and risking that he’d see her differently?
“So,” she said, “where are we headed next?”
“Let Warner worry about that. Tell me something, Lola. What’ve you got to be sorry for?”
“Not much,” she said. “I’m not exactly a model citizen, but I have no regrets. My past does shape me. It’s made me who I am. I don’t believe in hiding from it.”
“You’ve hidden things.”
“Hidden? No. Not volunteered…yes.”
“Why?” he asked. “Are you ashamed?”
As one of the few people she knew who’d actually learned from her past instead of buried it, she was almost offended. “You haven’t earned the right to ask me that,” she said.
“I’ll earn it then.”
He didn’t have to. She was his for the rest of the night, and he could make all the demands he wanted.
“You might take it,” she said, “but you won’t earn it.”
“I will. Trust me.”
The way his voice had dropped when he’d said trust me made her want to do the opposite. It was becoming clear Beau had a weakness for a challenge. He’d showed her that at the L.A. Philharmonic gala, when he’d acted proud of being a bad chess player in high school because it meant an opportunity to improve. He’d said he was happiest when conquering himself, but she’d suspected he’d meant ‘himself and others.’
“That kind of thing can’t be earned in one night,” she said. “And I promise, Beau—this is the last night we will ever spend together.”
“Why? Your bank account’s hit its limit?”
It was like being back at Hey Joe, when she’d been transfixed by Beau, and he’d nearly knocked her off her feet with his proposal. She curled her hands into two fists. “I don’t get you. One minute you’re tender and the next you’ve reduced me to nothing more than…than—”
“A whore?”
“Excuse me?” she asked, unable to keep the shock from her face. He’d put her in this position, and now he was accusing her of being a whore? “How dare you?”
“I’m being honest,” he said. “A person who takes money in exchange for sex—what would you call her?”
Lola dug her fingernails into her palms with the urge to clock him.
“Maybe courtesan is better?” he asked. “It’s more romantic.”
Beau had a weakness for a challenge, but Lola’s weakness, it turned out, was Beau. There was no other explanation for why she kept letting him in. He had a way of getting her to lower her shield so he could stick her with a knife. She didn’t seem to learn her lesson. She leaned away from him. “Fuck you. I’m only doing all this because of you.”
“You entered into this agreement willfully.” He tried to take her hands, but she smacked him away and vaulted backward. He grabbed her wrists to pin her arms to her chest and her back against the seat. When she stopped resisting, he said, “I don’t think you’re a whore.”
Her chest heaved. He was so close, she breathed on his face.
“But I’m going to fuck you like one tonight.”
She wanted to fight back, protest, but she was melting at his touch, craving more of him despite his words. “You’re awful. You treat me awful.”
He kissed her. His grip never loosened, and she never stopped pushing back.
“Which one of us are you fighting, Lola?” he asked against her mouth. “Me or you?”
“I don’t know,” she moaned, trying to catch her breath. She was hot, and some of it was anger. She’d empathized with him. It meant a lot that he’d opened up to her. She hadn’t been that vulnerable, even with Johnny, since he’d made her dance for him at Cat Shoppe. “You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what?”
“What you did to me last time.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“First you make me comfortable. Loose. Then you try to humiliate me.”
He released her and sat back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m right, aren’t I? Last time you took me to a star-studded fundraiser so I’d be awed and see you at your best. Then suddenly you put me on stage and command me to strip. Tonight you take me to meet your sister, open up to me, then call me a whore?”
“My, my.” The corner of his mouth crooked. “What an imagination you have.” His smile vanished. “Remind me to punish you later for being so impertinent tonight.”
“Nowhere in the terms did it say I couldn’t fight back.”
“But it did say I’d always win.”
The threat in his tone resonated everywhere—in her heart, in her stomach, between her legs. Beau would always win, because whenever he decided tonight, he’d have her. As much as he wanted.
“Don’t look so frightened, ma chatte.” He took her chin in his hand and lifted her head. He trailed his fingers under her jaw and behind her neck. “I am going to love you in the way I fuck you. I’ll make everything better,” his voice dropped, “and worse.”
He took his hand away, but his touch remained—a reminder that her body wasn’t in her control. His words were just as unshakeable, and she quickly forgot about her body. Now she worried about his hold over the rest of her.
